Relating on a Molecular Level
by littlebirdy05
Summary: When an invention goes wrong leaving the penguins and company human, the penguins struggle to remember what had happened that day and search for a way to return to normal. As time goes by, they find it may not be as easy as they had hoped- and that returning to normal may not be what they want... But an old enemy may make that decision for them.
1. Chapter 1

Oh lord, oh lord, guess who it is and what I've just found. I hadn't even thought about this account, I know I'd intended to abandon it but when I came across it I just got so excited.

I'm _actually_ in the middle of rewriting this story on DA, I think I might rejoin my old account here. :D I've taken down my old stories but they've all been saved for the sake of potential rewrites. I've found I've improved drastically~

But yeah, hey! I'm not at all caught up on episodes but this was too fun not to do, so expect a rewrite coming! 

* * *

_The Molecular Organizer._

It was a device invented by Kowalski, who claimed it was going to "revolutionize stealth" or some nonsense or another. A high powered machine that could rewrite your DNA and rearrange every molecule to completely alter your species; absolutely perfect for undercover missions. It was his greatest invention yet, finally coming to fruition after a life time of hard work in secrecy.

So naturally it all went terribly wrong.

"Ugh..." Skipper groaned, pushing himself up off the ground. He felt terrible, and couldn't quite remember what had happened. He rubbed his temples, trying to ease his headache and remember.

It had been a perfectly normal day off... Nothing besides a brief morning training session. No missions, mostly because it had been storming rather badly and everyone was cooped up.

Come to think of it it was still raining a bit, and he absentmindedly noted that he was soaked.

They'd moved inside the HQ when it started raining, and went about their day... Private watching the tv, Rico- he'd been looking at an old comic book but had later opted for a nap, and Kowalski was tweaking the, whatever that was, his new invention. He hadn't stopped working on it since he'd unveiled it weeks ago.

And he, himself, had simply been going over old files. He could attribute none of these things to the massive headache and general pain he felt now, and it was getting increasingly hard to think as his irritation grew. Something was off and it was bugging him, but he couldn't put his flipper on it.

With a grunt he pushes himself up off the ground, rubbing his eyes.

"Men?"

He froze when he'd opened his eyes to see the main HQ room in front of him- completely out in the open and destroyed, burnt to a cinder, with the top of their artificial ice flow blown to rubble and the iron fence around their habitat bent.

"Men?!"

He quickly runs over, running up to the iron bars and gripping them to look into the HQ, when suddenly he reels back, startled.

No, no, this was all wrong!

He felt a sort of panic set in as he backed up. He was too far off the ground, his... his _hands_... They were _HANDS_!

He puts his hand over his chest, still in a panic, and looks around for the other three. In doing so he'd realized his chest was _bare_.

"Oh- As if matters couldn't get worse!" He snaps.

"S-Skippah?"

Skipper darts into a shrub, looking around for the source of the sound. Not far awake he can see a figure move. One that was unmistakably _human_.

"Ohh my head," Private says with a small whimper, then in a worried tone, "Skippah, what happened, where are you guys?"

"Private?!"

Private opens his eyes, looking in Skippers direction to see the man in the bush. Something immediately clicks and his eyes widen.

"Ah!" He rears back away from Skipper, then looks at his own hands, "AH!"

And with one of them panicking it suddenly became impossible for Skipper to hold his own in, and suddenly they were both screaming at the insanity of their situation.

"Will you two _please!_ " Another voice says and another figure sitting up, "I'm trying to put together the series of events that lead to my blackout and you aren't helping!"

 _"AH!"_

"GAH!"

"AH!"

And suddenly Rico was up too, and they were all staring at each other, screaming for what was at least a good continuous minute and forty five seconds, and running around to find various shrubs, signs, or even treetops to conceal themselves.

"ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT!" Skipper snaps, breaking through their panic, "That's enough! We... We admittedly have the right to panic, but if we're going to do so, we need to do so somewhere where... we won't draw attention to ourselves." He says, voice still on edge.

"Skippah, what happened?!"

"I don't know!"

"W-well," Kowalski rubs his head, still in his own state of panic, "this looks like the work of the molecular organizer! But- but it doesn't even have a human setting!"

"Well that's great Kowalski, when you find out what OTHER absurd machine it was that changed us from PENGUINS to HUMANS and inevitably EXPLODED and threw us out of our home, DO LET ME KNOW."

"That... That was an unnecessary amount of sarcasm..."

"AND THIS IS AN UNNECESSARY AMOUNT OF HUMAN." Skipper snaps. "MEN!"

The three others stand at attention from their hiding places, and Skipper huffs, going into leader mode.

"We can't stay here all night, no doubt some human somewhere heard the explosion. People will be coming to investigate soon, and I don't want to be here when they do. We need to find clothes. And shelter. From there we can figure out what to do."

"But- but Skipper, the HQ?"

"No time. Everything's destroyed anyway..." Skipper couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness at that. It's always been a last resort to blow up the HQ and move on, but when it came down to it. Well he'd never expected they'd have to.

"Skipper, they might not find important documents... or even anything identifiable for that matter, but they'll _know_."

"Skippah, we won't be able to come back!"

"I _said_ there's no time." Skipper says firmly. "Now Kowalski. Options."

Kowalski hesitates a little before pulling out his clipboard and leafing through it. Of course he immediately realized he couldn't see it and puts it away.

"Ah... Our best bet is the giftshop, Skipper." He says. "There are souvenir shirts, and the zookeepers keep the extra uniforms in a cabinet in the back. We still won't have shoes, but at this point I think that would be a luxury..."

Skipper nods a little.

"Alright, men." He says. "Commence operation _Postpone Panic._ "


	2. Chapter 2

"Watch where you step, men." Skipper says, slightly yawning.

It was adding up to be a long night, with the four of them walking through the city to try and find proper shelter. They'd stuck to the shadows thus far and refused to make eye contact with people because they certainly didn't need to be found out or caught up in human affairs.

"I would if I could," Kowalski huffs, "It's no wonder humanity is a mess, I can barely see."

"I can see just fine." Private pipes up.

"And who knew humans went through life with so much pain!" Skipper says, half throwing his hands up in exasperation.

"I... I feel fine?" Private glances back at Rico who just shrugs. He seemed fine too. "Um, Skippah, perhaps we can get to a streetlamp for a check up? That was a pretty big explosion after all."

"And let the humans see us, Private? I don't think so."

"Well. I was thinking about that." Private says. "Wouldn't it be easier to find a place to stay if... we, um, _asked_ someone?"

"Nonsense, Private-"

"Actually, Skipper, " Kowalski sighs, "I'm beginning to think the same thing. The park didn't have adequate shelter to keep us from being spotted and we've been wandering this street for at least an hour. And two out of four of us appear to be in ill health."

He pauses.

"Though we're still doing surprisingly well considering the circumstances. An explosion like that should have caused serious injury. Or worse." They'd seen the state of the HQ after all. "A brief stop to check on the condition of the team could prove- GAH!"

The other three quickly turn to look to Kowalski as he fell back, holding his foot.

"Oh, I curse these humans and their apparent inability to properly use a trash receptacle!" He snaps.

"Oh no, what happened?" Private asks, concerned, but none of them step closer as whatever Kowalski had stepped on was likely still around. Kowalski gingerly feels around the ground for a second before finding the glass bottle and it's shards, and he scoots away in the opposite direction before getting up again.

"Oh what do you _think_?" He grumbles, hopping on one foot.

Skipper huffs a little, running his hand through his hair, exasperated at their course of events.

"Alright, men... We'll just have to be a less picky about where we settle down for the night. We've already been rained on, we're already soaked and cold. Humans are probably going to see us anyhow..." He doesn't seem too happy about that. "Rico, carry Kowalski. We're heading back to the park."

"Didn't we just come from the park, Skippah?" Private asks, while Rico throws Kowalski over his shoulder.

" _Yes_ , Private, but since we're stuck in this mess anyway," Skipper says, gesturing, "I want to stick as close to the HQ as possible. If there's a chance to salvage what we've got left, I'm going to take it." He didn't want to abandon home any more than they did.

"Oh!" Private grins as they head back, and he claps a little. "Yay~"

" _Don't_ get your hopes up."

It wasn't too long before they found themselves back at central park, planted beneath a tree on the wet ground. There were no streetlights in this part of the park, but Skipper knew Rico should still have plenty of supplies on him.

"Alright Rico, flashlight."

"Er..."

Skipper just waves his hand impatiently, "I'm sure it's fine."

"Affirmative." Kowalski says, propping his foot up, "The Molecular Organizer doesn't effect inorganic and non sentient matter, remember?"

"Kowalski, how do you know if something's not, um, sentient?"

"Oh we are NOT getting into that conversation again." Skipper huffs, and holds out his hand again. "Rico."

Rico just shrugs. "Okay." And Skipper quickly found a flashlight in his hand which- to his discontent- he found more unappealing to the touch than usual. Something he'd been noticing about a LOT of things he's touched today.

He'd take feather covered flippers over bare hands any day.

"Uhg. Alright..." He hesitates for a second. Their eyes had long adjusted to the light polluted city's night, but it's almost seemed that as long as it was night time they could tell themselves that they weren't really seeing what they were seeing. He clicks the light on and breathes out.

"Sweet mother MacArthur..."

The other three looked at him as he pointed the light in their direction, and he couldn't even wrap his mind around what he was seeing. It was absolutely unmistakable, three humanized team members sat in front of him and somehow he could even tell immediately who was who.

Kowalski on the far left, tall and undeniably skinny- Skipper quickly decided that he wasn't going to use invention work as an excuse to skip training anymore- Rico on the far right, nearly as tall as Kowalski and more heavily built, though the long scar would have given it away if he hadn't been, and Private who was far shorter than the other two with wide eyes and whi-

"Kowalski! What's this?" Skipper demands, pointing to Private, and Kowalski looks over.

"Uh... That's... Private?"

"His _hair_ Kowalski. It's _white_."

"It- it is?" Private asks, concerned. The other three's hair was black. Not white.

Kowalski pauses to scratch his chin, pausing briefly at the unwelcome sensation of finding there was hair there too, before pointing.

"So it is... I believe it's a minor mutation. Likely a selective thing, as penguins we are black _and_ white after all. And whatever's happened to us, it was clearly in an unstable environment with little to no control over mutations like this."

"What do you mean mutationssss?" Skipper demands, putting emphasis on the 's'. "As in more than one?"

"Well. Yes, it's quite likely. Clearly the Molecular Organizer was the cause of the explosion, other wise we wouldn't be in this situation. And if we all changed because it exploded then frankly we're lucky that ones of us doesn't still have webbed feet."

...

They all pause briefly to look at their feet before continuing.

"I want a check up on each one of you." Skipper demands. "Unpredictable mutations are bad enough, I want to make sure we're all in top working order."

"Uhg, actually Skipper I think I've already found mine." Kowalski says, waving his hand in front of his face. "I can't see two feet in front of me. Everything's a blur."

"What are you talking about? You could see before." Skipper says.

"Well, yes but I _also_ find that my mind appears to be working on overdrive. It's quite an experience. I think during the rearrangement of molecules the brain was deemed more necessary an organ than the rest and thus more focus and resources were put into the formation of that- taking away from the eyes apparently."

"...What?"

Kowalski sighs a little. "My subconscious worked on my brain more than my eyes so now my sight is bad."

"Okay well why can the rest of us see fine?" Skipper asks, confused. Kowalski just nods as if he were already contemplating the same thing.

"I think... it really is a subconscious thing. We were rearranged in a way we WANTED to be, so to speak."

"Well that makes even less than the first thing you said! Why would you want to be half blind and why would Private want white hair?"

"Well, no, that's not what I mean." Kowalski says matter of factly. "I mean, I obviously value my intelligence over something as trivial as _eyesight_ -"

"I bet you didn't think it was so trivial when you stepped on that glass." Skipper huffs.

"-AND," Kowalski continues firmly, "Private clearly has a deep seeded need to be noticed."

"What, I do not!"

"Well why didn't you take it from your HAIR not your eyes, it looks ridiculous!"

"Well I didn't do any of this on purpose!" Kowalski huffs. "I don't control it!"

"Hm..." Skipper rubs his chin a little before removing his hand in disgust. More things that were unpleasant to the touch. He sighs. "Alright. I think I'm following... What about you, Rico?"

"Hm, yes," Kowalski says, "what is it that you could have wanted the most to change about yourself, more than anything else?"

The other three turn to Rico, who's eyes widen slightly in surprise at suddenly being the center of attention.

Uh...

He ponders on it for a second, the others looking intently when they see the realization dawn on him and he opens his mouth.

"This."

The other's blink a little, confused.

"This! This, I wanted this!" He says, growing excited and pointing to his mouth, and the other three gasp.

Out of everything to take place tonight, _this_ felt the most unnatural.

"Rico!" Private finally exclaims, though he still couldn't find more words than that.

"Ha! HAHA! No more being bound by the limits of what I'm physically capable of, for the love of _Alfred Nobel_ I can talk!"

"Rico, what's all this? You know I like my crew one dimensional, I'm supposed to know everything." Skipper demands. Rico just reaches over and roughly grabs Skipper's face, staring him down.

"I am going to say this because now I can. _I don't care._ "

"Ow! Geeze, watch what you're doing." Skipper says, shoving Rico's hands away while he continues on his excited ramble.

"Skippah, are you okay?" Private asks. That was at least twice now that Skipper had shown some sign of pain.

"I'm fine." Skipper huffs, rubbing his cheek.

"Well," Private reaches over and grabs the flashlight before Skipper could object, "now it's your turn. You get a check up too, Skippah." He says matter of factly before shining the light on him.

Private, Kowalski, and Rico stare, and even Rico's excited babbling drifts into silence. Private puts his hand up to his face.

"Oh my..."


	3. Chapter 3

"Skippah!" Private exclaims, "What happened to you?!"

"What, what, spit it out!" Skipper demands. Kowalski limps over, keeping his weight off the foot that had yet to be treated- not that he was concerned about it now, Skipper was far worse.

"Brahe's Boxers, you look terrible!" He says, cautiously poking and prodding at Skipper. "You look like you'd taken that explosion head on!" He motions for Private to come closer with the flash light, and Skipper sees Private grimace as he does.

"Goodness! Cuts, bruises, burns, swelling, and I'm almost positive there's some broken bones-"

"Well that explains a lot but that's not my concern." Skipper says, "What about the mutation?"

"Skipper, I hardly think that's our more pressing matter-"

"I don't want anything surprising me," Skipper says sternly, "this night is a wreck enough as it is, now I demand to know my _mutation_!"

Kowalski gives a defeated huff. As long as they could address Skipper's injuries when he was done, then he suppose they could ignore them a moment longer. It's been a couple of hours by now anyway.

"I... I don't know." Kowalski says, examining Skipper, "I can't really see, everything _appears_ normal. Private, Rico, come help me."

Skipper couldn't help but feel a little awkward with the three of them poking and prodding at him.

"Oh dear, I was hoping these would all just be physical mutations as that's what the Molecular Organizer effects; I do hope no mental ones slipped through- or internal physical mutations for that matter. That could cause serious problems." Kowalski says, worried.

"Oh, I found it!" Private says, the points to Skippers head. "Look! Feathers!"

"Fascinating," Kowalski and Rico look to where Private was pointing. "Feathers mixed with mammalian hair. I'll confess, I was hoping this mutation would supply some sort of insight into your personality, Skipper, but I'm just as baffled as ever. I'm not sure what could cause this one."

"As it should be." Skipper says, nudging the three away from him, now that he'd gotten that out of the way.

"Skipper, now that we've gotten that covered, we really need to address these injuries, some of them could be quite serious." Kowalski insists.

"I'm _fine_ -"

"You most certainly are not- uh, sir..." Kowalski clears his through. "I think we've all learned our lesson after that broken flipper, Skipper."

"Skippah, I think we need to get you to a doctor." Private says with concern.

" _Absolutely_ not."

"But-"

"Actually, Private, this time Skipper is correct." Kowalski interrupts. "Unfortunately. Humans operate on a complex system. We have no money and no identity..." Rico cracks his knuckles.

"Looks like we're going to have to take care of this one ourselves!"

"I am not going to get used to that." Skipper says, taking a step back.

"Ah, ah, Rico I'm afraid we don't have the proper supplies. Or knowledge for that matter, though I'm sure I could make due."

"That doesn't exactly fill me with confidence."

"The _point_ is that we don't have the proper medical supplies or a sterile place to work. and for that, we need money."

"Can't we just get it like we normally do?" Private asks.

"Negatory." Skipper says. "We're far more noticeable now. Kowalski, how much could we make selling some weaponry?" Rico's eyebrows go up.

"Wait what?"

"None I'm afraid, Skipper, humans don't take too kindly to weapons. We'd be more likely to be jailed than profitable."

Rico sighs with relief.

They all pause to think. They had to find ways to earn money, Skipper was obviously in terrible condition. Not life threatening it seemed, but urgent none the less. And if left untreated it could escalate into worse.

"Mhm... Well. Do you feel abnormally tired, at all, Skipper?" Kowalski asks.

"Less so than you three I'm sure." Skipper says, crossing his arms, and Kowalski just nods.

"Very well. I have an idea but we won't be able to put it into effect until morning when the people are about." They were the ones who had money after all. "If... that's okay."

Skipper nods. "Very well, then. Men, let's turn in for the night. We'll take shifts keeping watch; I'll take first watch."

"But Skippah, _you're_ the one who needs rest."

"If I take first watch, Private, then it means I can sleep uninterrupted until morning." Skipper says matter of factly, and Private taps his chin in thought.

"Oh... Okay then~" 

All of them settle down for the night- after treating Kowalski's foot- rather uncomfortably. The ground was still wet, and for penguins who were used to the fat that they no longer had, it was quite cold. But they'd dealt with worse.

Skipper sat up late into the night, much longer than his shift should have been. But he found himself far too anxious to sleep. Something had happened to him and his team and none of them could remember exactly what. While it could have been a simple Kowalski disaster as usual, his paranoia told him otherwise.

That, and he was concerned for the other zoo inhabitants. They'd left so quickly in a panic, none of them had even thought of the rest of the zoo, and he couldn't help but kick himself over and over now for it. He'd certainly never forgive himself if something had happened and his team had just abandoned the place, but he couldn't go now. His boys have had a long night and needed their rest.

As if the universe had heard his concerns, Kowalski suddenly woke with a start, breathing heavily in a panic. He spots Skipper looking at him with mild concern.

"Uh," He huffs, "Sorry Skipper, just a bad dream... It appears some memories are trying to break through."

Skipper nods with a small grunt, understanding, and Kowalski shakes his head.

"Nothing to shed light on our situation, though, I'm afraid." Just the feeling of fear.

"I'm sure we'll figure it out." Skipper says. "Kowalski, I want you to take the next watch. I've got business I need to attend to."

"Business, sir?"

"I'm making a run back to the zoo." Skipper says gesturing. "We might have acted a little too quickly. Or at least I want to be sure."

"I'll come with you." Kowalski says with a nod.

"No. You three need your rest and someone has to keep an eye out for these two while they're sleeping."

"Ah, but, with all due respect you know the credo. Never swim al-"

"Kowalski, don't argue with me."

"I'm afraid it's necessary. You're contradicting the one rule you teach us, _and_ you're in no condition to be doing this in the first place. I'm respecting your authority by not waking the other two so that they can side with me."

Skipper just looks at Kowalski unamused, and Kowalski half smiles glancing at Skipper from the corner of his eye. He knew he'd won.

"Alright, alright." Skipper sighs. "Wake Rico up I guess. We'll just have to be quick about it, there's still a little night left."

Kowalski nods and heads over to wake Rico up. Rico's eyes snap open with a little nudging, and though he said nothing and appeared calm, the look in his eyes suggested he was having the same nightmares.

"Sorry Rico. We need you to take a shift. Skipper and I are running recon at the zoo to make sure things are okay."

Rico grunts and sits up- then remembering he can speak, "Alright. Private still sleeping?"

"Yeah, we're going to try and be quick so you can get back to sleep." Kowalski pauses. "Remember anything important...?" Rico shakes his head.

"Naw. Jumbles of things."

"I thought as much." Kowalski stands up again, brushing himself off and extends a hand to help Rico up. "We'll be back soon."

Kowalski and Skipper head out. The zoo wasn't far, so with luck they'd be back within the hour. That accounted for the walk there and back and scanning the entire zoo in stealth to be sure all was well.

Kowalski glances at Skipper.

"When we get back we _are_ forcing you to get some rest."


	4. Chapter 4

Kowalski and Skipper sneak into the zoo without any trouble, and as luck would have it it appeared none of the humans had discovered their little indecent yet.

Kowalski accounted for the change in their size and marked a path accordingly, avoiding any of the zoo's security features. They'd likely been seen leaving, however, and Kowalski convinced Skipper to let him make a run to grab the tapes after they'd established that all other zoo animals were safe and accounted for. And they were, all tucked away in their beds, so to speak..

Skipper wasn't entirely sure how they had managed to sleep through such an ordeal. But they had been gone a time, and the other animals had likely grown accustom to explosions from the HQ. Even if this one was larger than normal.

He couldn't help but wonder about Marlene and the lemurs, though. Surely they would have seen.

Never the less, they were all okay and that was the important part. Skipper gave Kowalski the go ahead to secure the tapes, and while he did Skipper waited outside their old habitat. What was left of it anyhow.

He sighs, sitting on a nearby bench, just staring. He wanted to jump in to the habitat and start gathering everything they owned, erasing all the evidence. It was highly impractical though, it would take too much time recovering every hidden bolt that could possibly be there. Something, though...

Something told him to go and to investigate. Instinct, he'd say, but even then it felt different. Some flicker of memory, that manifested more as a feeling than an experience.

He pauses briefly to look around and see if Kowalski was coming. He wasn't. He'd assured Skipper that even with his bad eyesight he knew the zoo like the back of his flipper, and Skipper had countered that that wasn't a very good comparison considering their situation. But that was beside the point, the point was that it was probably going to take him a while.

Skipper pushes himself up from the bench with a little grunt and steps over to the bent up fence, pausing a moment before hefting himself up and jumping on to the rubble pile where their home once stood.

Everything... seemed so small.

He stoops down to pick up his mug, charred and dented, and holds it with his thumb and index finger. It felt so wrong.

He gingerly settles down among the debris and picks through things. Anything that had been paper based, or plastic based, well that was long gone. Wooden things? Mostly gone. Anything metal had been blown apart and/or charred and bent beyond recognition, and even the stone that had made up the entire place didn't fare well against the blast.

He rubs his eyes, frowning. Something was still so off.

He looks around at the rest of the ruined HQ. Even other rooms had been destroyed...

"Skipper!" Skipper looks up to see Kowalski running towards him. He stops abruptly at the fence, "What are you doing in there?!"

"I'm... going through our things?" Skipper says, confused.

"Skipper, I told you the Molecular Organizer runs on a biological independent power source!"

"...What?"

Kowalski huffs throwing his hands down and rolling his eyes. No one ever listened to him.

"This entire place could still be charged. The Molecular Organizer could still be active."

"Ah." And here he was touching everything. "Just as well. I don't think there's anything here that's salvageable anyway." Skipper says with a sigh.

He pushes himself up off the ground.

"It's strange, though... the HQ took so much damage and yet here we are walking around with bumps and scratches. Well except me. But I dare say I still fared better than these walls."

Kowalski nods a bit, still anxious for Skipper to remove himself from the area.

"Yes, I've been thinking on that and I will gladly give you my information if you will just please-"

"I know I know, I'm going." Skipper huffs, making his way to the edge of the rubble pile. As much as he hated to admit it, he'd begun to ache quite a bit and didn't quite think he'd make that jump, even as small as it was to them now.

With full intention to wade over to the wall, Skipper sticks one foot in the water.

"AH!" He rears back landing hard on the ground, and half into the water again, "GAH!"

"Skipper?!"

He sounds like he's yelling, but it's unintelligible, and Kowalski quickly jumps into the habitat careful to avoid the water which had obviously been the cause. He'd kick himself later for not taking proper precautions, but he quickly grabs Skipper and pulls him from the water.

"I told you Skipper, you should have been careful!"

"S-stow it." Skipper says, struggling to get a hold of himself.

"Look at this, you're even worse than when we got here!" Kowalski half scolds, checking where Skipper had touched the water. He didn't scold as much as he'd like, Skipper was still his superior after all, but he was strongly tempted.

"I'm fine."

"You have second degree burns."

"And I had third degree burns to begin with, I told you I'm fine." Skipper huffs, actually embarrassed that he'd made a simple mistake.

"You're not fine, you're stubborn. But I suppose to you that's the same thing, isn't it?" Kowalski says, helping Skipper up.

"And the sooner you three get that through your heads the easier this is going to- ow!"

It was officially a bad idea to put weight on his foot, or touch the burns, and Kowalski just looks at him with his 'I told you so' expression.

"Quiet soldier."

Before Skipper could protest, Kowalski actually throws him over his shoulder and clears the span of the water, before setting him back down.

"Sorry Skipper. Your orders, we can't spend all night out here."

"...The worst part is, I can't even reprimand you because technically you haven't done anything wrong." Skipper says with a sigh. "Don't ever do it again."

"Yes sir."

Skipper hobbles back over to the bench and sits down, putting his head in his hands.

"Uhg... well the bright side is, no important documents or machines are left. No real cleanup necessary."

"Aye, Skipper, I'd assumed as much. As for the oddity of our well being... uh, Skipper?"

Skipper suddenly points.

"Marlene!"

Marlene's eyes widen when she notices them point her way.

She'd been awake all night, ever since the explosion. When it'd happened she'd seen these humans in the area and had waited for them to leave before investigating, and much to her worry had found nothing but a wreck. A few of the other animals who'd known the penguins well had come to check as she did, but seemed to decide that there was nothing they could do and had gone back to bed. Which had made her rightfully angry of course.

She had slept, and spent the entire time pacing. When she heard some of the humans come back she'd pretended to be asleep, but then abandoned that facade when she heard the humans screaming suddenly. Something about their voices had seemed familiar enough to peek her interest, and she watched their antics for a while.

She didn't expect them to spot her, let alone have an interest in her presence, though. When the two rushed- well as fast as the one could- over she dove back in the water with every intention of hiding back in her habitat.

"Marlene, wait!" Skipper pauses a second to catch his breath as Marlene eyes the two suspiciously. "It's-" He huffs, "It's us!"

"Uh, it's," Kowalski points to Skipper and them himself, "Skipper and, um, Kowalski. Now I know this is highly unusual but I can explain everything!" He insists.

"Well you can't explain everything." Skipper insists, putting his hands on his hips. "How about that missing time? Can you explain that? Can you explain the platypus, or humans, or why penguin eggs just pop up in the flippers of responsible parents?"

"Oh, I didn't mean everyth- wait what?"

" Oh my gosh it is you guys! What happened to you?!" Marlene exclaims.

"Wait, we can understand her?" Skipper asks.

"Of course," Kowalski says with a gesture, "The Molecular Organizer was made to account for the species language assuming they differed, but this is our native tongue."

"Guys!"

"Ah, sorry Marlene. It's hard for us to tell, we don't have a lot of memory to go on up until that point, but it appears one of my inventions malfunctioned terribly." He expected Skipper to chime in at that, but Skipper said nothing. "We're stuck like this I'm afraid. At least for a while."

"But, what happened to you?" She says looking to Skipper, "Where's Private and Rico, are they okay?"

"Affirmative." Kowalski says with a nod. "They're in the park. We've been camping out after failing to find adequate shelter. Skipper is the worst off so far."

"And it's nothing I can't handle, Marlene." Skipper says with confidence. Marlene only sighs, somewhat relieved.

"Well I'm just... glad you guys are okay?" They were okay, right?

"Yes, we're going to attempt to raise money for medical supplies for Skipper. Speaking of, I managed to grab this while I was in the office." Kowalski says, pulling a first aid kit out. Rico had had one but it went rather fast considering their new found size. "I'd like to at least treat any remaining cuts or burns so they don't get infected."

"Not now, Kowalski, we have more important matters." Skipper says, waving his hand dismissively, and Kowalski huffs putting the first aid kit away.

"Marlene, we can't stay." Skipper says, "But we'll be back. I need you too keep anyone and everyone away from that water in our habitat, no matter what it takes."

"The water in our habitat is charged with leftover power from the Molecular Organizer," Kowalski adds, "It's still active and highly unstable. We'll be back to collect it when we can."

Kowalski had yet to explain as much, but it was crucial that they came back for the water. The power source for the Molecular Organizer was absolutely unique and if they wanted to get back to normal any time soon, they needed it.

"And in the mean time, we have to figure out just exactly what happened." Skipper says. Marlene nods a little in response.

"O-okay I think I can do that." She says. "But, where are you guys going, when are you coming back?"

"Tomorrow night." Skipper says, matter of factly. "We have work to do and it's too risky to come during the day. Hold anyone off until then."

"Okay..."

Skipper looks to Kowalski and nods.

It was time to go, they'd already been gone longer than planned.


	5. Chapter 5

**Heyo~ Pardon the late update I realize I hadn't explained here what I've already explained on DeviantArt.**

 **In addition to this just for fun fanfic, I also have a webcomic that I've made with a friend, that I do the managing for and a lot of work was put in to that so it comes before this story, and I've had to make a few new page for it. In addition to that I've been aiming to get commission on DeviantArt as well, so I can visit said friend.**

 **I'm still in the middle of making pages for the comic, but I hate to keep you all waiting because I know I've always been rather unreliable with this story, so here's a quick update for you all. :)**

 **Hope you enjoy~**

* * *

"Push harder!"

"I- I can't Skipper, the hatch won't budge!"

"Skippah, the back entrance is blocked too!"

Skipper looks around frantically for another way out of the HQ as the whirring from the overloaded machine just gets louder. He'd curse himself for not planning another exit but another exit was another entrance to a potential enemy. One way or another it was a little late now.

He feels a bit of panic set in as the other three realize what he's already figured out, and that was that there was no way out of this. It was one thing if he'd given up but another thing entirely if they had too. Well that just wasn't going to fly!

"Men, duck and cover!"

"Skipper?"

"DUCK AND COVER!" Skipper runs over to the other side of the room and grabs the Molecular organizer as it's whirring grows more urgent. It was larger than him- larger than any of them in fact- but just small enough. He shoves the machine into the lower bunk and throws all the pillows and blankets over it before barring himself in front of the hole in the wall. The others, of course, realize now what he was doing.

"Wait, Skipper!"

* * *

"Skipper? Skipper wake up."

"Get your hands off me." Skipper scolds, brushing Kowalski away. He groans, "Oh I feel like I've been hit by a bus!"

"Sorry Skipper," Kowalski says with a slight nod, "But we're all set up and ready to start, we just wanted to check on your injuries first." Rico and Private poke out from behind Kowalski and wave. It was looking at them that Skipper realized something was a little off.

"What the-" He looks all around, somewhat startled, to find he was in a tent.

"Oh, we've got a few of them set up, Skippah," Private says, noticing Skipper's gaze, "so we can put on shows!"

"Like a, uh," Rico wiggles his fingers, "mini circus."

"Hm, yes, I only wish we had more acts." Kowalski says, "It would greatly improve our chances in getting our medical supplies, but also food."

"Where did we get tents?" Skipper asks, rubbing his head, confused.

"Kowalski and Rico took an early morning shift to make enough money to get some at a shop down town."

"Why didn't you just use that money for supplies?"

"Well it wasn't enough." Kowalski says with a nod.

"So you got tents?"

"Well, yes... They were very cheap, they're not camping tents, they're just the plain event tents-"

"That seems like badly sorted priorities, Kowalski." Skipper says. Kowalski huffs.

"The tents are necessary to earn more funds than we could on our own. They are large enough to attract attention which is an obvious necessity, but they also keep you out of sight without us having to leave you or sacrificing man power to have someone stay behind. We don't want anyone asking questions after all, and an injured party is offputting to the crowd." Kowalski insists. "So now that we have that out of the way, can we please focus on checking those injuries?"

Ah, and here Skipper was hoping he'd distracted Kowalski enough that he'd forgot.

"Oh if you must." Skipper sighs, and pushes himself up- or rather halfway up before collapsing back down with muffled and unintelligible obscenities.

"As I suspected." Kowalski says, getting to work on changing the bandages while Rico and Private stood by to help.

"I figured any pain would get worse over night, particularly once stiffness had settled in. Normally I'd recommend getting up and moving around to stretch out those sore limbs, but until we're able to properly treat everything, please stay in bed. And yes, you absolutely have to, the three of us aren't going to take any of your arguing it's already been decided. It's likely several things are inflamed, torn, or broken, and we'd like to minimize the amount of work you'll need.

"Bah," Skipper sighs, "I'm in no mood to argue anyway." His statement raises a few eyebrows but no one says anything.

"Yes, well. That's for the b-what on earth?" Kowalski seemed genuinely baffled as he unwrapped the bandages put on for the burns Skipper had gotten during their recent trip back to the zoo. The burns themselves had completely healed, but they'd left large patches of tightly packed, water proof feathers in their place.

One patch of feathers ran along the side of half his forearm. There was another patch on his side, just below his arm, and another patch all along where he'd originally stepped in the water in the first place. His foot, however, seemed normal, and he wiggled his toes just to be sure.

"Oh! Skippah, you're all feathery!"

"That's probably not a good thing." Rico says, half patting Private.

"Oh."

"Mhm, yes, it appears I was correct." Kowalski says, prodding at the feather patches. "The water is charged with the bio-driven energy source. It seems odd, though I suppose I should have predicted it, the charge is stuck on the human setting."

Kowalski scratches his chin, genuinely, puzzled once again.

"I don't understand how it's doing that without the machine, though... I look forward to studying it!"

"Well I look forward to some peace and quiet." Skipper says sternly. "I was up all night after all."

"Ah, right, sorry Skipper." Kowalski finishes up and packs everything away, handing the first aid kit back to Rico. "Alright, we have a show to do. We'll be back as soon as we can with something for you to eat and drink."

"Take your time." Skipper says, laying back down. "I'm more tired than I am anything."

Rico hacks up a pair of earmuffs. "Gonna need these."

"We'll be back soon, Skippah!"

Skipper settles in as the other three leave, putting the earmuffs on and trying to get back to sleep. As he was dozing off again, he couldn't help but get the vague familiar feeling of remembering that he'd had a dream earlier, but whatever it was it was just out of reach of his memory.


End file.
